I wouldn't go that far... the need for pre-orders is not the 'business model' but simply an initial funding source. I don't believe at all Jack wrote up a plan saying 'we will pre-sell product and fund ongoing ops through that'. Obviously they expect games to be selling and generating revenue to fund ongoing work. But their inability to get games to market (production delays)... makes their main revenue stream go away. They knew they had to funding up front to start up the business.. but the lack of production capacity and lack of product to sell... puts further strain on their cash flow.

If JJP had inventory to sell.. and a product people want to buy.. the whole dependency on presales goes away.

Running out of money is not the same thing as saying the pre-sale was their business model. They did not go into this with no money and then seed the pot with only pre-order money. They weren't going to build the business from scratch AND build the games with that pre-order money.

They knew all along the first game sales revenue would never float the game build AND building the company. The problem is when you are so late on shipping product, that is more time you are not making new sales. The longer it took to get the first pre-sold games out, that was time they could not be bringing in new cash by selling games. It's why they monkey'd around with what games they built first.. to bring in new revenue. And why they sold the 75th reds.. again.. get fresh revenue in.

Their problem was it took them so long to fufill the orders they had already sold.... when you are only doing one thing that is a LONG PERIOD of time before you have fresh things to sell.

This is why factories are not measured on what they design... but what they SHIP. It's why at Williams the golden rule was keeping the factory pumping out units and the factory schedule dictated game deadlines.. not designers. This is why companies start designing the next game before the first is done.... you don't want those dead-times for the factory.

The problem for JJP is they were so late.. they weren't building units to sell, just building units they had already sold. And since they didn't have any other inventory to sell... they are just running in the red for so long eventually you run out of money. They need a constant supply of SALES (and profit) to fund the ongoing operation. The problem is when you don't ship units out the door.. you have no incoming revenue and you sap your reserves. Do that too long, and even any money you DO bring in, is just playing catch up.

That long drought of sales due to not having anything you can actually invoice against is what hurt JJP.

It was their lack of product moving out the door... not when people paid... that would/will/could be the death of them.

Hey captain oblivious... spec one out and don't just follow the starting price. You may want to look into what the specialty versions cost too